


A veil over that night

by Quente



Category: Mamma Mia! (2008)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quente/pseuds/Quente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanya reflects on the merits of losing a good night's sleep. </p><p>Why the heck am I writing about an old lady in a fandom I've never touched before, you might ask?  It's because I'm also an old lady. This one goes out to all of us middle-aged fanfiction writers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A veil over that night

"Tanya...Oh please, Tanya." 

That voice. Tanya rubbed the stickiness in her eyes away with manicured fingers, wondering if the voice was left over from a dream of thirty years ago. But after opening her eyes, it was still dark, and the voice was still there.

"Are you done napping, old woman?" Teasing, definitely. The voice pissed her off. No, wait, it didn't make her feel quite that moved, damnit. The voice -- and the handsome young man that it belonged to -- simply made her roll her eyes.

Those teasing words also meant that Tanya was NOT in her room. In fact, from the feeling of sand beneath her ass, she was not even in A room.

A dark face eclipsed the stars of the Greek islands, haloed by hair that strayed just a little from its braids. The smile was brighter than the half-moon, and shaped about the same.

"Pepper, why are you here? No, wait, why am _I_ here?" Tanya's voice held all of the calm amusement that she was still attempting to feel.

"Oh, mama, you know why you're here with me." The young man chuckled, shifting to stretch beside her on the sand.

There was a hand on her stomach. Tanya wasn't young enough to wear a bikini, hell no. Despite the lack of children, fluctuating weight and a strong vanity kept her accentuating her strong points. The hand didn't hit skin, it hit a nice thick layer of shapewear; her stomach jiggled beneath it. 

Tanya put her hand over the hand on her stomach and smiled up at the young face, firmly pushing Pepper's hand back to his side. "Honey, the only reason I can figure out is that I haven't manage to make it all the way back to my room."

Pepper groaned, leaning forward to bury his nose in her expensively dyed hair. "Oh, no. Don't say that. I liked you better tipsy and dancing in my arms. Would you like another drink? I'll scare up a bottle of rum from my stash..."

"Scary," Tanya laughed, caught for a moment pondering just what it would entail to drink rum from the stash of a twenty-something beach bum. Wait. Was he even twenty? "Pepper. Let me up now. It's time for 'mama' to get a good night's rest or I won't be any help to Donna in the..." What time was it anyway? "morning."

Fingers were ghosting along the side of her face. She gave him her best quelling look, but the night was apparently too dark for him to see her expression, because the fingers didn't stop tickling.

"Pepper, your fingers."

"Mhmmmm?" They were tracing down the veins of her carefully maintained neck. The surgery scars were not visible at all, and for that, Tanya had her fabulous surgeon to thank. In fact, if he was free next week, she'd go thank him in person... After all, it might be a mutually beneficial "thanks." Surgery wasn't cheap...

"What are you thinking about, mama? Your eyes closed for just a moment..." The voice in her ear was soft and eager.

"That this feels like playing with a puppy," Tanya said, her voice flat.

Laughter in her ear, a richer sound than she'd expected from the young lad, soft like water. Tanya actually smiled to hear it.

"I want you like a puppy wants a bone, mama." Pepper's voice ached, and for a second, Tanya felt it ease through her veins.

She caught her breath and considered, biting her lip. Yes? No? It would be easy, far too easy. She put her hand up until it touched skin and felt it slide along bare chest. She felt his heartbeat increase, faster and faster. To Pepper's credit he sensed that the moment was crucial and stayed absolutely still, waiting for her next words.

The sand on her feet was still warm. It wasn't that late. Tanya was a free woman, and she could...

All of the things she could do had her twisting her lips a little wryly, and she had to wonder what her new puppy could do in return.

Tanya had spent most of the past twenty years -- fine, thirty years -- selfishly. She'd gone through a few husbands, discarding them when they were no longer useful to her or to her bank account. It was sometimes a difficult life, in fact, she thought of it as more of a job than anything else. The men had never been young, and never quite this hot. In fact, the last time she'd dallied with a hot young man had been... Right, husband three, and the accidental encounter with the chauffeur.

It was totally not her fault; nobody believed her when she said they'd simply been testing out the springs on the new limousine's backseat. But after that, she'd sworn off young men. They were trouble, from their eager words down to their chasing feet.

Still, she'd broken her promises to herself before, and now might be a good time to break another one. She hesitated, raising herself just a little on her arms, staring at the boy a few inches from her.

"I won't make you regret it," the young man promised, and his voice sounded just a little breathless.

But just as Tanya leaned in for a kiss, she remembered the one part of her life that had never, ever been selfish.

She flopped back onto the sand and held Pepper back with the hand that still lingering on his chest.

"Bw -- what?" he protested.

"Donna. She needs me. I'd better not show up tomorrow rode hard and put up wet, you know."

"Rode hard -- "

"That's all for tonight," Tanya said, pushing the young man out of the way and sitting up. "I need my beauty rest. For Donna's sake."

The push propelled Pepper away from her so that he rolled over and over on the sand, landing on his back with a flop of disappointed limbs.

The sight made Tanya laugh. There was nothing on earth more pathetic than a denied young man. "I'll see you tomorrow, puppy."

"I want you. So badly."

Gathering her things and standing, Tanya sighed, looking down at the dark shape on the pale sand... looking down at her youth.

"I know," she said gently. "I know."

Stepping over him, she walked back toward her room, and back toward the only love that had ever stuck around and mattered, for all those years.

"Good night, Tanya," Pepper called after her, the longing still plain in his voice.

"You owe me, Donna," Tanya grumbled to herself, tripping through the sand, feeling the moment slip away. 

Ah, well. Boys were ephemeral, but friendship was worth that one precious cup of self-denial that she still had.

Probably.


End file.
